Wireless communication devices are configured to operate in a variety of operating conditions and operating environments. A mobile wireless device can experience drastic changes in signal quality based on its location relative to the transmitting signal source. The variations in signal quality can be characterized by changes in the wireless channel linking the transmitter to the wireless receiver.
There are many factors that contribute to the wireless channel. For example, received signal strength decreases as the distance between the transmitter and receiver increases. Additionally, variations in the terrain and the presence of obstructions and reflective surfaces contributes to multipath. The signals traversing the multiple signal paths from the transmitter to a receiver can constructively or destructively combine. Destructive signal combination due to, for example, a phase rotation in a multi-path signal component can result in substantially reduced signal quality at the receiver. A reduced signal quality is often referred to as a signal fade, or simply, a fade.
Wireless communication systems can implement a variety of techniques to compensate for the probability of operating in a deep fade. A wireless communication system can implement signal diversity to help compensate for fades. Diversity refers generally to implementing some type of redundancy to provide or resolve independent signal paths.
A transmitter can provide diversity by introducing a distinct resolvable signal, such that a receiver has an increased probability of receiving and resolving the transmitted signal. The transmitter can introduce diversity using a plurality of transmit antennas, a plurality of transmit frequencies, a plurality of transmit times, or some combination thereof.
For example, transmit diversity can achieved by sending an original information symbol from one antenna and sending a modified version of that symbol from a second antenna. The modified version of the original symbol can refer to a version of the original symbol that is delayed, conjugated, negated, rotated, and the like, or a combination of some or all the above. A rotated signal refers to a complex rotation of the signal phase relative to a reference. The receiver process the total received signal over one or more symbol periods to recover the transmitted symbol.
Similarly, a receiver can provide a limited amount of diversity through the use of multiple receive antennas that are spatially diverse. Preferably, the multiple receive antennas are spaced at a distance that enables each antenna to experience channel characteristics that are independent of the channel experienced by the other receive antennas.